In Scandinavia no palaeolithic stone implements have been found, from
which it may be inferred that the glacial period continued there during
the ages when palaeolithic man hunted and dwelt in caves in the other
countries where his remains occur.
The best authorities do not suppose that the men _originated_ in the
localities where the tools are found; and there is so little known about
the geology of Central Asia (for example) that it is impossible to say
whether tribes may not have wandered from some other places not affected
by the glaciation we have spoken of.
Again, the gravels and brick earths containing the tools are just of the
kind which defy attempts to say how long it took to deposit and arrange
them.
It may be taken as certain, that after the one age ceased and the first
men appeared, the beds in which their relics occur have been raised
violently, and again depressed and subjected to great flushes and floods
of water. The caves have been upheaved, and the gravels are found
chiefly along the valleys of our present rivers, but at a much higher
level, showing that there was both a higher level of the soil itself and
a much greater volume of water.
The Straits of Dover were formed during this period.
But none of these changes required a very long time; and if we can trace
back the later stone age, which shows remains of pottery and other
proofs of greater civilization, to the dawn of the historic period not
more than 4000 or 5000 years ago, there is nothing in the nature of the
changes which, as we have stated, intervened between the palaeolithic
and neolithic periods, that need have occupied more than a thousand or
two of years.
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